Controversy stirs in Charlotte over 'deviant' art

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (CNN) -- At a hotly contested
recent meeting of the Mecklenburg County Commission,
commissioners voted to end funding for any art project they
consider deviant and incompatible with family values.

Protesters outside the commission chambers shouted "Shame!
Shame!" and those inside were no less vociferous.

"This is division, this is hatred, and it's history repeating
itself," county Commissioner Lloyd Scher said. "Hitler began
with these teachings."

The source of the controversy was "Angels in America," a
Pulitzer Prize-winning play presented in Charlotte last
spring. Among its themes, to the dismay of some demonstrators
and commissioners, was gay life in America.